This week’s Time Capsule looks at paving, a group drowning, Delk Road, NASA and teacher raises.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, May 7, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story that reported a committee went by car to Atlanta the Tuesday before to investigate the cost of various paving methods and materials for use on the Marietta square. Atlanta Street was also reported as expected to be “oiled and later paved in a substantial way.”

50 years ago …

The body of an eight-year-old girl – one of seven people to drown in Lake Allatoona the day before – was reported in the Monday, May 3, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal paper as having been found 150 feet from the site of the tragedy. The victims were members of three related families, all of the Woodstock area.

Authorities attribute the group drowning, at least in part, to the makeshift boat and overloading. The boat was an aluminum rowboat and the families had attached a board across the back of it as a place to set the motor. Eyewitnesses said the boat was not more than three inches out of the water.

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A second story in that paper reported that a gas war was raging in the county. Cobb County service stations – both independent and name brand stations – began dropping gas prices three days earlier. On the day of the report, gas prices were 23.9 and 25.9 cents per gallon at independent stations and 25.9 and 29.9 at name brand stations.

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Property on both the north and south sides of the proposed Delk Road Connector were reported in the Tuesday, May 4, 1965 paper as having been sold for more than $700,000 in recent months. The previous week, the Journal reported a move was under way to have the proposed link from the 4-Lane Highway, now known as U.S. Highway 41, to Interstate 75 constructed with free access. Originally the connector had been planned as limited access. The combined federal-state project was designed to speed traffic from the Lockheed-Marietta area on to I-75 and remove traffic from I-75.

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In the Wednesday, May 5, 1965 paper it was reported that Rep. John Davis had called on NASA to channel more U.S. funds for space research into Georgia and the South. The Georgian joined with other members of the House Space Committee in writing a recommendation into the annual authorization bill for NASA to distribute development money on a geographical basis.

Davis cited a growing national recognition that the South was entitled to a bigger share of federal funds for scientific research and declared that this “is most encouraging.” The Congressman also reported that the greatest concentration of the money was going to New England and California.

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The Cobb County Commission was reported in the Friday, May 7, 1965 paper as having agreed to close the Alms House on Fairground Street and distribute the patients to private nursing homes. Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett said the county-owned and fully financed nursing home would be closed as soon as possible. The Cobb County Department of Family and Children Services was to be relocated to the Alms House.

20 years ago …

A raucous crowd of more than 900 Cobb County teachers and their supporters were reported in the Wednesday, May 3, 1995 paper as having converged on Sprayberry High School to fight for a state-passed six-percent pay raise. Wearing buttons, toting signs and chanting “Six percent like Miller sent,” teachers hoped to persuade Cobb school board members into granting them the six-percent pay hike recommended by the state in a proposal initiated by Gov. Zell Miller.

The state-approved funding would not cover the full six-percent for Cobb’s slightly more than 5,000 certified teachers, counselors and media specialists. That meant the local system would have to kick in another $4 million. The Cobb board had proposed an across-the-board three percent pay raise for all of the system’s then-9,211 employees.

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Also that day, in order to lure restaurants to downtown Smyrna, it was reported that Smyrna city officials lifted a long-standing ordinance prohibiting bars from operating near public buildings. The council let stand a restriction against the granting of a pouring license to a business located within 600-feet from a school, but tossed out the 200-foot distance requirement regarding public buildings, parks and residences for the downtown district.

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In the Saturday, May 6, 1995 paper it was reported that under proposed cuts in the 1995-1996 Cobb County school budget, elementary school students who lived between a half-mile and one mile from school would no longer be able to catch the bus to school. The proposal was believed to affect as many as 6,600 students. These students, who were mostly 5-10 years old, would have to walk to school. The policy change was said to cut about 15 percent of the 35,000 elementary school students bused to the then-56 elementary schools in the county.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a basketball coach, The Platters, desegregation and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 30, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story of how “before one of the largest crowds that ever witnessed a ball game in Marietta, the home team defeated Beck and Gregg by the close score of 6 to 5.” This was the first baseball game of the Major City Leagues and the Beck & Gregg team was considered one of the fastest in the league.

50 years ago …

Edward Lee “Bud” Smith Jr. of Tift High School was reported in the Wednesday, April 28, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as being named the head basketball coach at Marietta High School. Smith was reported as coming highly recommended “as one of the best basketball coaches in south Georgia high school ranks.” He had only one losing season in his 11 years of varsity coaching.

It was also reported in that story that Ronnie Camp, a former star lineman on the Marietta High football team, had been named to replace Coach Stan Wrinkle as the junior varsity football coach. Camp starred at center on the 1957 team that defeated Decatur for the Region 4-AAA crown, but lost to Northside, 6-0, in the North Georgia playoffs.

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In the Thursday, April 29, 1965 paper it was reported that five members of The Platters, a popular black singing group, voluntarily submitted to a search for narcotics in their cars at the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department.

Paul Robi, the sixth member of the group, was arrested in Atlanta the day before for possessing narcotics.

The remaining members, four men and a woman, were passing through Cobb County to Tennessee for a singing engagement. Herbert Reed, one of the group members, said that the group submitted to the search “in order to clear ourselves.” Reed also said that he hoped there would be no reflection on the group as a whole because of Robi’s charges.

The group was upstairs at the county jail handing out autographs while their Cadillac convertible and Chevrolet station wagon were being searched. Word quickly spread throughout the county’s government offices and employees “suddenly found they had business at the sheriff’s office in order to see The Platters.”

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Also that day, it was reported that the Marietta Hospital Authority had voted to increase the size of the proposed new wing for the hospital from 52 to 62 beds at a special called meeting. The move would add 24 feet to the wing and would cost the authority an additional $50,000.

The extra footage would make the new wing the same size as the existing wing at the hospital. The authority originally accepted a $691,000 bid from the Bickerstaff Construction Co., but decided to increase the size when the company offered to build the additional rooms for $20 a square foot than the cost of the overall square footage.

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Marietta and Cobb County school officials were taking a wait-and-see attitude on the new order that all schools desegregate at least four grades in the fall.

U.S. Education Commissioner Francis Keppel issued an order that required all public schools expecting to get federal funds had to have at least four of their 12 grades desegregated by fall and had to completely desegregate by the fall of 1967. The order further required that the school buses and faculties be desegregated also.

Both Cobb Superintendent Jasper Griffin and Marietta Superintendent Henry Kemp stated that the desegregation plans submitted several weeks earlier had not been officially turned down although neither plan called for desegregation for four grades in the fall.

The Cobb plan called for the desegregation of grades one and 12 by fall and two grades every year afterward until all grades were integrated. The Marietta plan called for grades one, 11 and 12 to be desegregated by fall and two grades every year afterward until all were integrated.

Meanwhile, Gov. Carl Sanders denounced the order as “a typical bureaucratic approach to a problem for which there is no bureaucratic solution.” In a statement issued by his office, Sanders said “Unless our congressional and senatorial delegation can put a bridle on the federal agency which is creating these severe regulations, it is obvious that Georgia is being thrust into a situation which can create both human and financial problems.”

20 years ago …

In the Monday, April 24, 1995 paper it was reported that the 12-member Acworth Society for Historic Preservation, formed in December 1994, was wanting to restore 11 historic structures dating back to the mid-1800s. Included in the list was the old Rothschild Mill at the railroad tracks in downtown Acworth.

The three-story mill, which lacked a roof, floors and even windows, only remained standing after catching fire in the early 1980s because its brick walls were more than a foot thick. Restoration of the mill was believed to be in the $150,000 to $200,000 range.

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House Speaker Newt Gingrich was reported in the Wednesday, April 26, 1995 paper as having held court in a Galleria penthouse while blue-collar workers protesting his policies were in a parking deck 17 floors below.

The smaller than expected crowd of about 250 pro-labor union protestors, the same group who stormed and then trashed his east Cobb office – which was mentioned in my March 19 column, failed in their bid to disrupt Rep. Gingrich’s appearance to raise money for Republican candidates for the Georgia Senate.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at Leo Frank, jail escapes, unions, Newt Gingrich and the Marietta Country Club.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 23, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story that reported the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the appeal of Leo M. Frank and refused to order a new trial. The only way to save his life following that action was a stay from the Governor, but that would not take place until Governor-elect Nat E. Harris took office.

Following a conference the Tuesday before, Frank’s attorneys began the preparation of an appeal they would make to the prison commission for clemency. The appeal was not expected to be filed for some time since Frank was at that time in the custody of the U.S. courts and the State Commission would have no authority to receive any petitions pertaining to him.

When the mandate of the Supreme Court was returned to Judge Newman’s office and the State began the habeas corpus proceedings, then Frank would be re-sentenced to hang at the gallows and the petition for clemency would be in order.

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There was also a story about how early in the morning on the Monday before that three prisoners had escaped from the Cobb County Jail. There were no details on how the men escaped, but Deputy Sheriff George Hicks was reported as having caught one of the men “at Noonday and brought him back to the Sheriff’s boarding house” the following Wednesday.

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There was a front page ad titled “Marietta Needs” in that edition which discussed how the citizens of Marietta needed permanent paving on the Marietta Square and surrounding city streets. The ad stated that both the city and merchants were spending $1,000 a year to keep down the dust and keep the Square in passable condition.

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On the second page of the paper was a full page ad titled “Ford Car Free.” The newspaper announced that it was having a big subscription campaign and was seeking 100 workers for six weeks. All workers would receive a cash in proportion to what they worked in the campaign and the best worker in the group would win a five-passenger, fully-equipped Ford automobile with electric lights.

50 years ago …

In the Monday, April 19, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that Marietta police and firemen responded to a call to a laundromat on First Street where an 18-month-old boy had his hand caught in the bubble gum machine. A bolt in the machine had to be cut to release the child’s finger.

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Ira Lee Wigley of Marietta was reported in the Wednesday, April 21, 1965 paper as having been arrested by FBI agents for unlawful flight on armed robbery charges. Special Agent In Charge Joseph K. Ponder of the Atlanta-FBI office said that Wigley, along with Gordon M. Towe and Nathan James Grant, fled the Floyd County Jail in Rome in January 1965 by sawing through the bars of a cell window and lowering themselves to the ground with knotted sheets.

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Also that day, it was reported that heavy black smoke was billowing out of the Sherwin Williams paint store on Waverly Way as fire swept through rolls of wallpaper. The Marietta Fire Department was able to contain the fire mainly to the second floor storage area, but there was smoke and water damage on the main floor.

Marietta Fire Chief Howard Schaffer said the fire started in a fluorescent light in a front office. It then traveled through a one foot area between the ceiling of the downstairs area and the upstairs floor before breaking through the upstairs floor amongst stored materials.

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The United Steelworkers Union was reported in the Thursday, April 22, 1965 paper as having terminated the strike at Production Engineering Company in Austell without settling on a contract. Union officials reported that the strike, which was first mentioned in my Feb. 5 column, was recorded as having lost its effectiveness and instructed all employees to return to work. In the meantime both sides said they would continue to negotiate a contract.

Throughout the two and a half months the strike was in progress incidents of “vandalism and malicious mischief” were reported as well as litigation by both sides. Two days after the strike was initiated, PECO owner Joseph Askouti filed a petition in Cobb Superior Court charging the union pickets with mass picketing, threatening those still on the job with bodily harm and keeping those on the job from entering the plant. The union was enjoined from this activity and limited to two pickets per gate.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, April 18, 1995 paper it was reported that pro-union protestors, who stormed House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s east Cobb office in March, planned to stage another protest when he spoke at in Cobb later in the month. The 300-plus angry union protestors, mentioned in my March 19 column, barged into Gingrich’s office chanting slogans, startling staffers, fighting with police and caused minor damage that included graffiti on the walls and broken picture frames.

Gingrich’s April speech was to be the main draw at a reception at the Georgian Club in the 18th floor penthouse of 100 Galleria Tower off Cobb Parkway. The event was a fundraiser for the Georgia Senatorial Trust, which helped Republicans fund campaigns for the Georgia Senate.

David Talley, senior property manager for Childress Klein Properties, said that since the building and the roads in the complex were private property that the protestors could be banned from the premises. He also said the regular force of private security might be bolstered with off-duty police.

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The view from Powder Springs Road of the old Marietta Country Club site was reported in the Saturday, April 22, 1995 paper as having drastically changed as the walls came tumbling down at the 70-year-old clubhouse. The demolition of the site was to make room for the city’s planned conference center and hotel, now known as the Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel & Conference Center.

A demolition tractor equipped with a long clawed arm started its day-long assault on the structure at 10 a.m., pausing only when city workers stopped to repair a hydraulic line on the machine, which had ruptured after striking a steel ceiling joist.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a still, a strike, the first C-141 squadron, Travis Tritt and the F-22.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 16, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story that reported that a young thief was captured robbing the store of Johnnie Griffith, which had been robbed the previous Saturday. Griffith was watching the store after closing when he saw a boy go into the basement window at the back of the store.

Griffith, who sent police through the back while he went through the front armed with a gun, found the boy crouching under a desk in the office. In the previous robbery, the boy had stolen $10.75 from the cash register along with “several helpings of Johnnie’s famous strawberry ice cream.”

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There was also a front page ad announcing that the Gem Theatre would have Prof. Oqhoony Raymus the European Magician for three days delivering “one of the best acts of this kind on the road.” The ad promised “many mystifying illusions will be presented.”

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, April 11, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that a 1,000-gallon metal tank moonshine still had been destroyed by Sheriff Dan Stringer, his deputies, state and federal revenue officers, in the Union Hill Community in Cherokee County, about 10 miles east of Canton.

The officers said the still was an all-electric, push button operation capable of producing at least 400 gallons of moonshine a day. Four people were arrested and charged with manufacturing and possessing non-tax-paid whiskey.

The still was installed in the basement of an elaborate barn and supplies were stored on the ground floor. Officers said the still used a 15-horsepower boiler that was fired with fuel oil from two 500-gallon underground tanks.

Sheriff Stringer said that five federal revenue officers and a state revenue man kept an all-night watch on the building after discovering a truck that had been loaded with liquor parked outside. The officers destroyed 15,110 gallons of mash, 545 gallons of moonshine and confiscated 9,720 pounds of sugar, 1,192 cases of fruit jars, a Ford van truck and a Chevrolet automobile.

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A move was reported in the Wednesday, April 14, 1965 paper as having been made by attorneys for the striking steelworkers at Production Engineering Co. (PECO) in Austell to take from state courts the $6.2 million damage suit filed by the company against the union. The company’s suit accused the United Steelworkers Union of conspiring to threaten, intimidate and injure workers at the plant.

The Cobb County Board of Education members were reported in the Thursday, April 15, 1965 paper as heatedly debating over whether married students should be allowed to attend school and wound up without a definite decision.

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It was reported in the Friday, April 16, 1965 paper that the Lockheed C-141 StarLifter would join the operational airlift force of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Travis Air Force Base in California.

Gen. Howell M. Estes Jr., the commander of MATS, flew the four-jet, 156-ton airlifter from the Lockheed Assembly plant at Marietta to the turnover ceremony at Travis AFB, which was the headquarters for the Western Transport Air Force of MATS.

The event marked the activation of the Air Force’s first C-141 squadron. The unit, which would receive 16 new StarLifters, would become the 44th Air Transport Squadron.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, April 10, 1995 paper it was reported that the trial of Andrew DeYoung, a 20-year-old northeast Cobb man accused of brutally killing his parents and younger sister in the early morning hours of June 14, 1993, was slated to begin in Cobb Superior Court. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against DeYoung, who had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder.

The bodies of DeYoung’s 41-year-old parents and 14-year-old sister were found with numerous stab wounds. The bodies were found after DeYoung’s 16-year-old brother, who was awakened by the screams, managed to escape through a bedroom window and call for help.

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Country music star Travis Tritt was reported in the Tuesday, April 11, 1995 paper as being presented the key to the city by Marietta Mayor Ansley Meaders at the Marietta City Hall in honor of April 10, which had been proclaimed Travis Tritt Day.

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Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Perry, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman, a former airlift pilot, were reported in the Wednesday, April 12, 1995 paper as explaining why the Air Force needed the radar-eluding fighter jet at an event at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. in Marietta.

“You don’t want to come in second place when it comes to air superiority,” Gen. Fogleman was quoted as saying to Sen. Nunn and Lockheed officials while leaning out of the F-22 flight simulator as it soared 40,000-feet above a computer-generated landscape.

Sen. Nunn had invited Gen. Fogleman to the Cobb plant to see the progress on the F-22 and the C-130J, two Lockheed programs in need of Pentagon and congressional support. In an interview after the tour, Lockheed President John McLellan said that both leaders warned that Lockheed airplanes, though important to national security, were threatened with deep budget cuts. But, McLellan said that Gen. Fogleman had not wavered in his assertion that the F-22 was the Air Force’s top priority.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at integration, KSU, the Braves, skateboarders and an execution.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 9, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story that reported that Col. Fred Morris was in San Francisco, California with his wife and son for two months seeing the Panama exposition. Col. Morris, who was doing special work for the Department of the Interior, was representing the newspaper as a special correspondent. The article stated that the paper had already received two of the three letters that he had written about what he had seen out West and that the paper would begin publishing them in a week.

50 years ago …

The Marietta Board of Education was reported in the Sunday, April 4, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as having not yet received word from the federal government as to the status of the integration plan that it submitted to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in order to comply with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Marietta School Superintendent Henry Kemp said that until the board was notified as the status of the plan that they were going forward and would implement it.

Meanwhile, a federal official ruled that to be in compliance with the Civil Rights Act, school systems had to desegregate facilities as well as students.

The plan adopted by the Marietta Board of Education called for integration of the first, eleventh and twelfth grades in 1965-66 and two grades a year thereafter. Under the plan all grades would be desegregated by the 1970-71 school year.

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In the Tuesday, April 6, 1965 paper it was reported that Cobb Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett revealed that Gov. Carl Sanders had agreed to provide state funds to pay some $300,000 in unexpected additional costs for development work at the site of the proposed new Kennesaw Mountain Junior College, which would later become today’s Kennesaw State University. The commissioner told reporters that work would begin on the project on June 1, 1965 as originally planned, thus permitting construction to remain on a schedule which officials said would permit the institution to open its doors to students in September 1966.

Barrett also said the governor had told him that he planned to ask the General Assembly for $17 million for junior college development in January and would give the Cobb project priority. The commissioner said $250,000 provided for development in 1964’s junior college bond issue in the county would finance work until then.

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Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen was reported in the Friday, April 9, 1965 paper as having presented the Braves baseball officials the key to Atlanta in an airport ceremony before more than 1,000 witnesses jammed in a plane loading area and observation platform. The mayor presented the key to Braves Chairman William C. Bartholomay and manager Bobby Bragan while the baseball team stood in a huge semi-circle.

Mayor Allen was quoted as saying, “This is the happiest occasion for Atlanta since Gen. Sherman in 1864 decided to head south for Savannah.”

Atlanta officials rolled out a 40-foot red carpet, but by mistake aimed it in the wrong direction. The Braves did not use it in arriving for the scheduled Milwaukee-Detroit opener in the then-new $18 million Atlanta Stadium. The Milwaukee players, whose home would shift to Atlanta in 1966, were dogged by small boys carrying new baseballs they wanted autographed. Girls in costumes ranging from drum majorettes to night club bunnies moved through the area while the Hapeville High School band performed.

Mayor Allen was also quoted as saying that he would also be happy to welcome the Beatles to the stadium.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, April 4, 1995 paper it was reported that the Austell mayor and city council agreed to look into drafting an ordinance to protect city residents from rogue skateboarders who merchants said were terrorizing city and private property. Mayor Joe Jerkins said that the skateboarder control law was expected to be ready by the council’s May meeting.

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An “angry and irritated” Nicholas Ingram was reported in the Friday, April 7, 1995 paper as having said his final goodbyes to his family, had been moved to a holding cell adjacent to Georgia’s electric chair and had his head and right leg shaved in preparation for his execution when a federal judge in Atlanta gave him a 24-hour reprieve.

Judge Horace Ward told state officials he wanted time to research a claim by Ingram’s lawyers that the 31-year-old condemned man had been drugged during his November 1983 murder trial. Ingram was convicted of shooting to death J.C. Sawyer and the attempted murder of Sawyer’s wife, Mary Eunice, at their Blackjack Mountain home off Allgood Road.

At least 75 reporters, photographers and technicians from local media outlets, CNN and Great Britain were gathered at the gates to the state prison where the convicted British-born man from Cobb County was being held. Outnumbering the local media was the horde of British reporters covering the execution. Also among the crowd were three protestors – including two who said they were friends of Ingram’s family – and one death penalty advocate.

The next day, Saturday, April 8, 1995, it was reported that Ingram was executed just after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final request for a stay. Ingram died at 9:15 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. The execution was reported to have triggered a media frenzy in Britain and a torrent of phone calls and letters – including one from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. George Carey – to prison and parole officials in Georgia.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a car chase, arson, the Atherton’s Drug Store explosion, the F-22 and Julia Roberts.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 2, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story that reported that Marietta had been the scene of several daring burglaries in the last two weeks.

A burglar reportedly entered the Norton Hardware Company store’s through the front door by prying off a heavy pad lock and breaking another lock. The burglar then stole five pistols and some silverware. After the burglary, Mr. Norton was reported as giving Sheriff W.E. Swanson the numbers on the stolen revolvers, who then gave them to Atlanta detectives which soon located three of the guns in pawn shops. With help from a pawn broker, a black man who claimed to be from Chattanooga, Tennessee was later arrested and returned to Marietta.

50 years ago …

A dramatic chase in Marietta involving a suspected Chattanooga bank robber and his hostage, a Chattanooga obstetrician, was reported in the Sunday, March 28, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal.

The pair was traveling down the Four Lane, now known as U.S. Highway 41, in the doctor’s blue Lincoln when Cobb Deputy Albert Lingerfelt fell in behind the car at the Gold House Restaurant on the North Four Lane. The fleeing vehicle made its way towards the Marietta Square and Lingerfelt radioed their progress to other law enforcement officials that had been following on alternate routes out of sight.

But, the car stopped before reaching the Square and a hand out the window motioned for one of the following cars to approach. When Lingerfelt reached the car, he found the bandit holding a gun to the doctor’s temple. The doctor pleaded for Lingerfelt to call off the other cars or he would be killed. Lingerfelt did as asked, but continued to follow the pair as they left Marietta for Rockmart and finally to a point where the bandit was captured in Rome after the doctor managed to disarm his captor.

Police believed the robber held the physician’s family hostage before fleeing with him on a four-hour, 120-mile chase at gunpoint through two states.

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In the Monday, March 29, 1965 paper it was reported that Lockheed Elementary School was severely damaged in a fire, which authorities believed was set by an arsonist. Two rooms were almost completely destroyed and six others had severe smoke damage.

Marietta Fire Chief Howard Schaffer reported that the fire was apparently set in a closet in the end room on the south wing of the school. Schaffer was also quoted as saying that several doors that had been closed and locked by teachers were found open. Records from one classroom were also found strewn for about 100 feet outside the school and obscene pictures and writings were found on a blackboard.

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A half million dollar damage lawsuit was reported in the Tuesday, March 30, 1965 paper as being brought against the Atlanta Gas Light Company in connection with the 1963 Halloween explosion at the Atherton Drug Store in Marietta, which was the focus of my Oct. 31, 2012 column. The suit was filed by James W. Barfield and Bobby Dean Butler and alleged negligence on the part of the gas company for the death of Leslie Marie Barfield, the wife and mother of the men, respectfully. Mrs. Barfield was a clerk at Atherton’s at the time of the explosion.

The men contended in the suit that the gas company knew that roots and pieces of wood were interlaced around the gas main when it was laid in 1931. The roots and wood rotted leaving open passages for gas to escape. They also contended that the gas company knew that holes in the main would develop in 20-25 years after it was laid, which would allow for a gas leak.

20 years ago …

The General Accounting Office (GAO), the watchdog arm of Congress, was reported in the Monday, March 27, 1995 paper as wanting to hold production of the F-22 fighter to only six to eight planes per year when construction started in 1998. GAO said that the production would outpace completion of realistic tests of the plane’s combat capability. Defense Week magazine said that the strong recommendation was included in a Jan. 18 draft GAO report it had obtained.

The overlapping of development and production was known as “concurrency.” The GAO report called the F-22’s concurrency level “high.” The GAO claimed the Air Force would have committed $12.4 billion for production of 80 of the radar-evading 21st century fighters – about 30-percent of the 442 called for in the $71 billion project – before tests were completed in February 2002.

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In the Tuesday, March 28, 1995 paper reported that President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore flew into Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta to attend a reception with Gov. Zell Miller and select Democrats at the governor’s mansion, an economic summit in Atlanta and a visit to the office of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games on Williams Street in Atlanta.

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The unlikely and surprise 1993 marriage between Cobb County native Julia Roberts, then-27, and musician Lyle Lovett, then-37, was reported in the Wednesday, March 29, 1995 paper as being over. The couple issued a statement saying that they had agreed to a legal separation after 21 months of marriage.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a robbers, a controversial subdivision, Newt Gingrich and Coach James “Friday” Richards.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, March 26, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story that announced that Marietta had three “jitney bus” lines. Jitney buses are a shared taxi that fall between taxicabs and actual buses. The story reported that the vehicles were “nice, new automobiles, comfortable and swiftly going.”

50 years ago …

Harvey Hester, a well-known Georgia restauranteur and co-owner of Aunt Fanny’s Cabin – a restaurant that was located in Smyrna, was reported in the Monday, March 22, 1965 paper as having been beaten and robbed of over $1,000 when he came home early on a Sunday morning. A spokesman at Hester’s home said that doctors put in over 40 stitches in two different head wounds that Hester received from the assailant and that he was treated and released from Kennestone Hospital that morning.

The sheriff’s office said that Hester had just driven to his home, got out of the car and was leaning over to get the money bag out of the back seat when someone hit him twice on the head and once on the shoulder. Hester said that he did not see the person that hit him and stole the money bag before fleeing.

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The two Austell bank branch robbers, mentioned in last week’s column, which had over 100 lawmen searching for them for over four hours, were reported in the Tuesday, March 23, 1965 paper as having entered guilty pleas at an arraignment before U.S. District Judge Boyd Sloan in Atlanta. The men were expected to be sentenced later in the week.

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The new multi-seat Cobb Board of Commissioners was reported in the Wednesday, March 24, 1965 paper as having received a bill in the amount of $3,499.57 for a preliminary study made during the administration of former single-seat Commissioner Herbert McCollum on a project for McCollum Airport that was never carried out.

Sam Hensley of Hensley, Schmidt and Associates, an engineering group, reported in a letter to the new commission that he had a verbal agreement with McCollum to do an engineering study of the needs at McCollum Airport to improve its services. He also said the agreement called for a payment of six percent of the total contract.

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In the Thursday, March 25, 1965 paper reported that county officials had given final plat approval for the Marietta Housing Authority’s controversial subdivision on Kennesaw Avenue north of the city. The property, known as the Old Hardage Farm, was purchased by the Housing Authority in 1963 for a proposed subdivision and was since the subject of almost constant controversy.

Frank Melson, executive secretary of the authority, said the property would be developed into lots and then sold to private enterprise. Workmen were expected to begin grading the property as soon as the weather cooperated.

The housing authority originally purchased the farm as a relocation area for people to be displaced by the Johnson Street urban renewal program. Melson said the houses built by private builders on the lots would probably be in the $14,000 to $16,000 category.

A group of citizens in the Elizabeth area, which was located between present day Kennestone Hospital and MUST Ministries’ Elizabeth Inn, had made efforts to block the subdivision, but lost a court battle with the Housing Authority in 1963 when Judge James T. Manning ruled in favor of the authority and also held that an 1885 act of the General Assembly incorporating the Town of Elizabeth, was invalid and ineffective.

20 years ago …

It was reported in the Tuesday, March 21, 1995 paper that on the same day that House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited his east Cobb office to inspect minor damage from a protest by the Atlanta Labor Council, that the group’s president promised to repair the damage himself.

Stewart Acuff’s comments came on the Washington, D.C.-based syndicated Blanquita Cullum radio talk show, which was aired in 30 cities, but not Atlanta.

About 300 union protestors crowded into the speakers’s office, which was mentioned last week, chanting “Boot Newt,” breaking a picture, writing graffiti such as “Newt Sucks” on the walls and fighting with police.

Rep. Gingrich, who spent the weekend in Georgia, called the incident “bizarre” when he dropped by the office before heading back to Washington.

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More than 2,000 people, including big name Hollywood stars, recording artists and producers, were reported in the Friday, March 24, 1995 paper as being expected to attend the Marietta funeral for a colorful music industry executive, allegedly shot to death by an ex-girlfriend in Beverly Hills, California.

Charles Minor, then-46, was an executive with Hits Magazine in Sherman Oaks, California, a former president of Giant Records and a former promoter for A&M Records, both in Los Angeles. The Marietta native was a three sport star at Marietta High School and an alumnus of the University of Georgia.

He was considered by some to be “the most effective promotions man at Top 40 radio stations” and he worked closely with popular artists, including Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Buffet, Supertramp, Sergio Mendez, Janet Jackson, Sting, The Police, Quincy Jones, Brian Adams and Herb Alpert.

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Also that day, it was reported that 16 days after losing prominent head football coach and athletic director Dexter Wood – which was mentioned in my March 12 column, Marietta High School found his successor by selecting 17-year assistant James “Friday” Richards.

Richards, a Marietta native and former Blue Devil football player, served as an assistant coach in four different sports since returning to his alma mater in 1978. The announcement was made during a press conference at the school by superintendent Ron Galloway.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at Civil War damage claims, Stop Atlanta, voting rights, a bank robbery and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, March 19, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story about Congressman Gordon Lee who had succeeded in securing through the Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., the payment of 28 claims of damages by federal troops during the Civil War to property owned by Georgians in the Seventh Congressional District.

Among the list of everyone that had claims were the following locals – a $760 claim to Archibald A. Griggs, the administrator of the estate of the late Archibald P. Griggs of Cobb County; a $400 claim to the Church of Christ of Acworth, successor to the congregation of the Christian Church of Acworth; a $425 claim to the trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Marietta; a $800 claim to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Powder Springs; a $650 claim to the deacons of the Missionary Baptist Church of Powder Springs; and $3,000 claim to the Presbyterian Church of Marietta.

50 years ago …

Efforts by Fulton Sen. Dan MacIntyre to repeal or “somehow void” the “Stop Atlanta” amendment, which was mentioned in last week’s column, were reported in the Sunday, March 14, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as having only one remote avenue of recourse – introducing a new bill and getting it passed with a clause repealing House Resolution 21-27.

The amendment, which MacIntyre and five other Fulton senators had mistakenly voted for, sought to prohibit the incorporation of any territory within the limits of Cobb County by any municipality whose major portion was located outside of the territorial limits of Cobb without approval of the voters of the area to be annexed.

Later in the week, on Tuesday, March 16, 1965, MacIntyre was quoted as saying he felt the Cobb delegation should go through the whole “Stop Atlanta” issue again and let “us fight it out on even grounds.” He said there were “legislative chicanery” involved in the passage of the resolution and added, “It seems to me that the Cobb County delegation would want to be fair about the thing.”

The following day, Wednesday, March 17, 1965, the paper reported that Cobb Republican Rep. Ben Jordan, who introduced the “Stop Atlanta” amendment, said that “under no circumstances” would Cobb County reconsider the passage of the amendment.

“Regardless of how this legislation passed,” Jordan was quoted, “it is in the best interest of all Cobb Countians and I applaud all our legislative delegation who joined me in getting this legislation passed.” He also added, that “it is true that the Fulton County Senators were asleep at the wheel when this bill was passed.”

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A second story in the Sunday, March 14, 1965 paper reported that Cobb County appeared to take calmly President Lyndon B. Johnson’s televised request the night before, which was held in front of a joint session of Congress, for the rapid enactment of a voting rights bill.

Two of the president’s requests which were expected to influence Cobb County voting registration involved the establishment of “simple, union standards which can not be used, however, ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution” and the use of federal officials to supervise registration should “state officials refuse to co-operate.”

C.L. Johnson, the chairman of the Cobb County Board of Registrars, as well as other county officials indicated that Cobb’s lack of commotion in voter registration would continue and that the county would not feel any adverse reactions, like what was happening in Selma, Alabama.

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In the Thursday, March 18, 1965 paper it was reported that more than 50 lawmen, using bloodhounds and a helicopter, staged a massive manhunt in a wooded area off Factory Shoals Road for two masked gunmen that held up the Bank of Austell branch earlier in the day.

Authorities said the men drove their 1965 red Impala Chevrolet into a field off of Factory Shoals in an effort to elude pursuing lawmen and wrecked the car in a ditch. The men then fled into the woods.

The chase began after the men entered the bank with stockings over their heads and stole $4,755 while armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol.

The next day’s paper, Friday, March 19, 1965, reported the men were captured and confessed to both the robbery the day before and to the one on January 22, 1965 at bank, which was mentioned in my Jan. 22 column. The men were caught in the Briarwood Baptist Church, when a nearby resident noticed someone inside.

Nearly 100 law enforcement officers participated in the manhunt, which lasted four hours and covered an area of about 20 square miles.

20 years ago …

More than 300 angry union protestors were reported in the Thursday, March 16, 1995 paper as having forced their way into U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Cobb County headquarters chanting slogans, startling staffers and fighting with the police. The members of the Atlanta Labor Council/AFL-CIO arrived in buses with signs and bullhorns to protest what Council President Stewart Acuff called Rep. Gingrich’s “assault on workers.”

Chanting “Boot Newt” and “Shame on Newt,” the protestors overpowered Gingrich’s spokesman Allan Lipsett and took over both floors of the office building on Roswell Road, shutting down activity for 45 minutes and trapping patients in a connecting dentist’s office.

There was minor damage to the offices after the protestors left, including graffiti on the walls and broken picture frames. The protestors loudly left the building after Cobb police and sheriff’s deputies threatened to arrest them, but the shouting turned to fighting outside when police temporarily detained Acuff inside.

The protestors then tried to re-enter the building, backing officers against the glass doors. The resulting melee lead to two arrests and spilled out into Roswell Road, which had to be closed to traffic for 15 minutes.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a shooting, tooth decay, Stop Atlanta, burglars and MHS football coach Dexter Wood.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, March 12, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about how after four years in court the case of the Atlanta Clearing House against the stockholders of the Kennesaw Bank was settled. The settlement was the outcome of negotiations between the attorneys and the stockholders.

At the January term of Court, a verdict for approximately $4,500 was obtained against the stockholders. The terms of the settlement was approximately $1,700 less than the verdict.

50 years ago …

Powder Springs Mayor Gene Jackson was reported in the Sunday, March 7, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as having asked the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office to make an investigation into the shooting of a black man by Powder Springs Police Chief George Hornsby. A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office was quoted as saying Jackson felt the investigation should be made by an outside department.

Hornsby gave a signed statement to the Sheriff’s Office that stated he shot the individual after the man came at him with a knife. Hornsby had stopped the man and another black man for speeding. The shooting reportedly happened when Hornsby was putting the man into a car in order to transport him to Marietta.

The man, who was admitted to Kennestone Hospital in critical condition, told deputies that Hornsby threw the knife at his feet and then shot him twice in the chest.

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Also that day, it was reported that tooth decay in Cobb County had been decreased by 37-percent due to fluoridation, according to a study compiled under direct supervision of dental members of the faculty of the Emory University School of Dentistry, local dentists and dental personnel from the Georgia Department of Public Health. The study showed that over a six year period the percentage of children in the survey with tooth decay was trimmed from 15.4 to 9.7.

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The Tuesday, March 9, 1965 paper reported that the “Stop Atlanta” Bill, which had earned a great deal of publicity weeks earlier, was being held in a Senate committee waiting for a situation where it could find passage. The measure changed several times since being introduced by Cobb’s House members and at the time of the story was to provide a vote for all the citizens of Cobb County on any attempt by Atlanta to annex areas of Cobb County.

This part of the measure came about when Cobb leaders expressed fear that several choice industrial sites in the southern part of the county could be taken in by Atlanta by just a vote of those owning the land. In almost every instance, the sites were owned by people living in Atlanta.

Later in the week, on Thursday, March 11, 1965, the “Stop Atlanta” amendment passed by the State Senate 38-7. The amendment had passed the House earlier.

Then, in the Friday, March 12, 1965 paper, it was reported that Sen. Dan MacIntyre had pledged every effort to get the amendment reconsidered or “somehow voided” before the General Assembly adjourned. The amendment apparently passed in the State Senate while Fulton and DeKalb senators were off the floor.

MacIntyre was quoted as saying, “I don’t mind being beat, but do not like being hoodwinked. I wrote a substitute to the proposed amendment which somehow got lost. How it did, I will never know, but it didn’t get into the amendment.”

He said that when the amendment, House Resolution 21-27 was read it was described as a local bill concerning only Cobb County. MacIntyre said “we did not recognize it as the ‘Stop Atlanta’ measure, and consequently did not worry about it.”

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It was reported in the Wednesday, March 10, 1965 paper that Fulton County planners were considering eliminating the 60-year-old one-lane Powers Ferry Road bridge, crossing the Chattahoochee River adjacent to the modern twin three-lane suspensions of the Perimeter Road. Cobb County Commissioners stated they intended to fight the closing.

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Marietta police were reported in the Thursday, March 11, 1965 paper as having arrested two burglary suspects after receiving a tip from Cobb Superior Court Judge Emeritus Jim Manning who tailed the pair at high speeds over county roads. Manning told police that during the time he was following the suspects’ car, the driver stuck a gun out the window and fired twice at him. One of the men later told police that he had fired the gun, but did not know there was anyone following the car.

Manning said he began following the men after he noticed them drinking beer and acting “suspicious.” He and a friend tailed the pair to Dallas Road in Marietta where they stopped at Nolan’s General Store.

While police were searching the glove compartment of the car, officers stated they found a toboggan filled with $50.72 in change along with the gun. Officers also stated that both suspects had large amounts of change in their pockets. The case was turned over to detectives for further investigation and the two men were later charged with two counts of burglary – one at The Shamrock Inn on Allgood Road and the other The Market Basket on Fairground Street.

20 years ago …

Expressing a desire to spend more time with his family, Marietta High School head football coach and athletic director Dexter Wood was reported in the Wednesday, March 8, 1995 paper as having unexpectedly resigned and accepted a job as head football coach for Buford High School.

Wood, then-44, contacted Buford principal Bill Davis two weeks before the announcement about the vacant position at the Gwinnett County school. Wood would teach two classes at Buford, but he would not serve as its athletic director. The move brought Wood closer to his Alpharetta home, where he lived with his wife, Martha, and their two children.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at the PECO strike, a jail break, integration, church vandalism and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Feb. 26, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a quarter page-sized ad on the front from Norton Hardware Co. for a one-day 29-cent sale on a lot of 144 “extra high grade Butcher Knives that sell regularly for 50-cents.” The knives were advertised as “the finest grade double bevel steel” with handles that were “put on with three large brass rivets.”

50 years ago …

It was reported in the Monday, Feb. 22, 1965 paper that all was quiet on the Production Engineers Company (PECO) strike front in Austell, which was mentioned in last week’s column, after a contempt position was filed in Cobb Superior Court against 17 strikers “who had not acted in accord with the Feb. 2 injunction,” company president Joseph Ashkouti said. Superior Court Judge Albert Henderson had earlier ordered members of the United Steel Workers Union striking at PECO be enjoined from mass picketing and further attempts of keeping some workers out of the plant.

Since the original injunction was enacted, the homes of two non-striking workers had been reportedly set afire and another’s barn was burned, a transformer, valued at approximately $750 was hit by two high-powered rifle shots, and Sheriff deputies in Cobb, Paulding and Douglas counties reported complaints by non-strikers that their homes had been shot. There were also at least two reports of cars of non-strikers having been fired upon.

Later that week, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 1965, it was reported that attorneys for both parties of PECO’s suit against the United Steelworkers of America AFL-CIO announced they would reach a mutual restraining order agreement about the 25-day-old strike at the Austell facility. A hearing opened in Cobb Superior Court before Judge Albert Henderson with more than 100 people representing the plaintiff and the defendant.

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Five prisoners were reported in the Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1965 paper as having escaped from the county jail after making their way through a small hole cut through a steel wire screen in the entrance to the bull pen at the jail.

Five other prisoners who were also lodged in the bull pen did not leave and told Sheriff’s deputies that they did not hear the others leave and did not know when the jail break occurred. It was believed that the escape was made at about 3 a.m. but the prisoners were not missed until 6 a.m. when a trusty noticed the hole while sweeping the floor.

All of the prisoners who escaped had placed blankets or coats over the foot of their beds so the turnkey could not tell that they had disappeared. One deputy said that the escapees had to have used heavy wire pliers to cut through the steel wire mesh and “it must have been a strong man.” The hole in the screen was about a foot and a half square.

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Also that day it was reported that a bomb threat brought two fire departments, six policemen and several deputies to McEachern High School and evacuated 1,300 students from the school’s 13 buildings shortly before 9 a.m. The students were kept on the football field for an hour and a half while officials searched the buildings for the non-existent bomb.

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The Marietta School Board was reported in the Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1965 paper as having adopted an integration plan as an alternative to signing the civil rights compliance pledge. Superintendent Henry Kemp said the plan, which called for desegregation of the eleventh, twelfth and first grades in 1966, was forwarded to Washington, D.C., the day before.

After the first year, the integration plan called for the desegregation of two grades a year until 1970-71 when the desegregation will be finished. Kemp said the school board would release the full details of the plan on April 1.

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A second story in that edition reported that U.S. District Judge Frank Hooper ordered members of the Cobb County Commission and Planning Board show cause by Feb. 26 as to why they should not be restrained from rezoning H. Ford McClesky’s property on Powers Ferry Road. The order was issued after McClesky filed a petition asking the federal court to take jurisdiction over the zoning issue and decide what his rights were. The members of the commission and zoning board were named as defendants.

McClesky’s property, which was slated for development as a shopping center, had been the center of controversy. In the petition, the plaintiff stated his property was rezoned from residential to commercial on Dec. 11 by former Cobb County Commissioner Herbert McCollum. It further alleged that on Feb. 4, McClesky received a registered letter from Cobb Planning Director Louis Smith stating that the new multi-member Cobb County Commission was re-advertising for the rezoning of his property from commercial back to residential and that the Cobb County Planning Commission would consider the application on March 3.

Later that week, on Friday, Feb. 26, 1965, it was reported that the hearing on the property rezoning petition had been postponed in U.S. District Court until March 10. The postponement came at the request of William C. Grant of Atlanta, an attorney acquired by the commissioners to represent the two county governmental bodies.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Feb. 20, 1995 paper it was reported that vandals had struck the “picturesque 122-year-old church in Vinings” early on a Sunday morning scrawling satanic slogans on walls, destroying property and emptying fire extinguishers. It was the latest in a string of church vandalisms that began in December. Dr. Rob Durham, pastor of Vinings United Methodist church on Paces Mill Road, discovered the damage at 7:30 a.m. when he arrived at the small red-brick church to have some quiet time before the morning services.

The vandals broke in through a back window and spray-painted satanic messages and symbols in bright yellow throughout the chapel, church offices and rooms. Chairs, tables, file cabinets and lamps were overturned and damaged. A television was heaved from the top of a staircase and an American flag was desecrated. A thick layer of chemicals from five fire extinguishers covered walls, floors and church pews.

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Russia’s top nuclear official was reported in the Sunday, Feb. 26, 1995 paper as sounding unimpressed by the threat from East Cobb’s Newt Gingrich on trying to cut off U.S. aid if Russia pressed ahead with developing Iran’s atomic power program.

About 300 Russian specialists were in Iran working on its first nuclear reactor, Viktor N. Mikhailov, minister for nuclear power, told The Associated Press. He acknowledged that the Russian-Iranian agreement did not cover how to handle spent fuel – potentially a source of material for nuclear weapons. Russia and Iran had said the nuclear complex would only be used for peaceful purposes. But, the Clinton administration contended the Iranians had plans to develop nuclear weapons and it had pressured Russia since 1992 not to cooperate with Tehran.

Rep. Gingrich said in an interview published in The Washington Times a week earlier that “we should cut off all aid to Russia” if it persists in developing Iran’s program.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

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